BROTHERLY LOVE II
TITUS 1:4 / 1 JOHN 3:16-24
I want to begin this morning’s message by telling you about some of my relatives. There was my uncle Charlie, my mom’s brother. Uncle Charlie passed away quite a few years ago, but as a kid we saw my uncle Charley just about every Sunday. He never married, and lived with my grandmother until she passed away about two years prior to Uncle Charley passing on.
Uncle Charley was a strange kind of guy, he was one of those kinds of guys that kids like to be around because he was so strange. As a child we were fascinated by his whistling abilities, he could make the strangest noises. His eating habits also were somewhat odd. He was know for eating raw hamburgers. Just take the patty, uncooked, put it on a roll, a little ketchup and bon appetite. He would also take soft shell crabs, boil them up, and place the whole crab in between tow slices of bread, chow down. Now this all of course is pretty amazing stuff to 5 or 6 year old.
Then there was my Aunt Annette, one of my mothers sisters. Now you must remember that I still view these people through the eyes of a 5 or 6 years old. Now Aunt Annette was a tough looking lady. She was a heavy set women with a dark complexion. She like her brother Charlie was also a master at making odd noises. To my amazement she also had a quite discernable mustache. And to top it off she had a tattoo on her arm. Now while it may be common for women to have tattoos today, back in the late 60’s early 70’s it was not see to much.
What also amazed me about aunt Annette was that she drank beer, a beverage which I believe at the time to be strictly for men.
Not let my father off the hook I want to tell you about his brother my uncle Joe. Uncle Joe also passed a while back. He to was somewhat of a oddity to us kids. He was the guy who could pull quarters out of your ears, make pennies disappear and all that kind of stuff. He lived a tough life. As a youth his mother sent him to buy a loaf of bread. Uncle Joe did not come back for a couple years. But what made Uncle Joe even more special was the he had served time in Sing – Sing prison for I believe was armed robbery. There is nothing like a convicted felon in the family to keep things interesting.
Looking back at my Uncle Joe, and Uncle Charlie, and Aunt Annette, while I thought them to be strange and unusual I still loved them. While if I was not related to them they would have sacred the daylights out of me, because they were family I loved them. Being related to someone kind of changes our perspective on them.
A could of weeks ago we began to talk about brotherly love, and the need there is for that in the church. Please turn with me to Titus chapter 1 verse 4; That is page 1035 in your Pew Bibles.
Paul writes: "To Titus, a true son in our common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior."
We made note of Paul’s words of affection toward Titus, how He views Titus as not only a friend and co-worker in Christ, but as a son, as part of the family, the family of God.
I want to continue to look at the brotherly love which Paul had towards Titus, the brotherly love we each need to have for one another. Just like a couple week ago we are going to be examining 1 John chapter 3, because it is in that chapter the John talks of the relationship we need to have with one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.
So turn to 1 John chapter 3 if you would, 1056 as we will be taking a look at verses 16-24.
You may recall from a couple weeks ago that in 1 John 3:10-15 John gives us two main reasons why it is necessary for us to love one another, just as Paul loved Titus.
Remember as verse 10 tells us it distinguishes us as the children of God. People will know we are Christians, that we are disciples of Christ by the love that we have for one another.
We also pointed out that brotherly love signifies our passing from spiritual death into spiritual life. As verse 14 tells us; "We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death."
So while we have focused on these two reasons as to why brotherly love is necessary, today I want us to look at what it really means to love the brethren and what benefits we receive when we follow the commandment of Christ to love one another.
Beginning in verse 16 of 1 John chapter three we find the definition of brotherly love. Look at that verse;
"By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren."
The word of love in this passage is a Greek word that most of us our familiar with, "AGAPE". One of the ways in which it can be defined is "active goodwill". In others words it is a love that is expressed in actions and not just words.
The greatest display of this "AGAPE" love is of course found in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross at Calvary. We all now John 3:16; "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."
Also in Romans 5:8; "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
The love of God is displayed actively in the death of Jesus Christ. Let us all realize that we are sinners in need of Saviour. No amount of good works will get us into heaven. We need a Saviour, a mediator, we need someone to pay our debt to God. And that someone is Jesus Christ. And why did God sent His Son, the Scriptures are clear, because He loved His.
Now suppose God did not send His Son. Suppose He just said, "Yes I love you, but you are still going to hell." God’s love would do us no good if He did not display it to us, if He did not demonstrate it to us.
In giving His live to pay the price for our sinfulness Jesus certainly demonstrated goodwill in an active way.
John turns our attention to that example, and states that is what you need to do. Listen to 1 Thess 4:9; "But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another;"
We taught by God to love one another through and by the example of Jesus Christ. Jesus give us the example of "active goodwill" that we need to follow!
So through Christ we can come to an understanding of what brotherly love is all about "sacrificially serving others!"
We ought to be willing to lay down our lives for one another. Look around to your fellow brothers and sister in Christ. Scripture tells us that we should be willing to die for each one them. That’s is a pretty tall order.
But if we say we want to like Christ, then let us realize that that is exactly what Christ did. He died for each one, and He expects us to be willing to do the same.
He expects us to love each one of our brethren just as He does.
Now I will admit that most of will never be asked to physically die for one of our brothers and sisters in Christ. But let us realize that sometime dying for our brethren means living for our brethren. It means serving them, helping them, ministering to them.
I believe that John is not so much speaking of physically dying for each other as He is speaking of dying to oneself for one another. In others words putting each other first in all things.
This is seen in the next verse, verse 17; "But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?"
Here John uses the example of not helping a brother when it is within your power to do so. His point is how can we claim to have God’s love abiding in us when we are not willing to sacrifice for a brother in need. We cannot claim to have the love of God for one another if that love is not begin demonstrated. How can we say we are willing to die for someone if we refuse to live for them through serving them.
John asks the rhetorical question "how does the love of God abide in him?" The answer is simple it does not.
Look at verse 18 where John kind of puts it in a nutshell; "My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth."
Let us stop saying that we love each others. Let us stop putting up fronts as we walk around and shake each others hands. Lets stop deceiving ourselves into thinking we are loving each other as we should, and put that love into action, into service. Let us demonstrate the love we say we have for each other.
Remember the words of Christ, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
The only way this world will know we have love for one another, the only way they will know we are Christ’s disciples is if we demonstrate brotherly love.
So we have see the brotherly love distinguishes the children of God, is signifies having passed for death to life, brotherly love is patterned after the example of Jesus Christ, and brotherly love is to be manifested by what we do, not just what we say.
As with any commandment of God there are always blessings that go along with obedience and loving each other is no different. Look at verse 19-21; "And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God."
According to this passage brotherly love, practiced as it should be, gives us assurance before God. John states that demonstrating love towards the brethren is an indication that we are "of the truth", just as it was an indication of that we have passed from death of life.
John here also point out the important of such assurance. He make the point that if our own heart condemns us for not loving the brethren as we should, certainly God who is greater then our hearts and knows all things, will also know of our shortcomings in this area of our lives.
Or as Matthew Henry states, "If conscience condemn us in known sin, of the neglect of known duty, God does to".
On the other hand if our heart does not condemn us because we are loving the brethren as we should, we are demonstrating it as we should, then we can joyfully and confidently approach God.
Have you ever hated to go to God in prayer because of guilt about some sin. You just dread praying because you know you will have to humble yourself before God and ask forgiveness. Ever felt the you were just unworthy to even pray to God because of sin.
Yet at other times when you are walking with the Lord, walking in His will you could not wait to go to pray and worship God.
That is what John is talking about here. The blessing here is that when we obey the Lord by loving each other as we should we want to go before God, we want to worship Him, we want to pray to Him, to spent time Him.
But when we are not walking with Him, then we do not want to approach His throne.
Brotherly love also leave to positive answers to prayer. Look at verses 22-23; "And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment."
Keeping the commandant of God, will bring about blessings. It will bring about answers to prayers.
One reason that it will bring about answers to prayers is that when we are walking in obedience to God, (that means loving the brethren), we are more likely to pray in accordance with the will of God.
However if we are walking in disobedience, walking out of God’s will then we are more likely to be praying for things with wrong motives, praying according to our own will and not God’s.
By loving our brothers and sisters in Christ, by demonstrating that love, we please God, and God will hear our prayers.
And that is a great blessing, to know God hears and will answer out prayers.
Look at verse 24, there is the greatest blessing which comes from brotherly love; "Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us."
By loving each other in words and deeds it ensures that we are abiding in Christ and the Christ is abiding in us.
The word "abiding" mean to "reside with" or "remain near". So we cannot say that we are remaining near Christ if we are not keeping his commandments. If we do not demonstrate love for the brethren as we should then we cannot say that Christ abides in us, or we in him.
We are told in different parts of Scripture that abiding in Christ is contingent upon keeping His commandments. In John 15:10 Jesus tells us; "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.’
Verse 24 also answers the question of how will we know that Christ truly abides in those who keep His commandments, by the Holy Spirit whom Christ has given to us. The Holy Spirit will make us aware of the presence of Christ in our lives.
How will He do that you may ask? Through conviction, through His leading. Through the power the Spirit has given us to obey the commandments of God.
The final blessing that comes from brotherly love is a healthy church. There must be love for one another if we are to have a healthy church. The NT repeats itself over and over "love one another". This church cannot be what God wants if to be if we do not love each other in word and deed.
How can we claim to have order in the church if we have not love for each other, we cannot begin to have Godliness in our homes if we are not loving each other and teaching our children do to the same. We cannot impact the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, if they see strife, backbiting, and discord in the church. They must see love.
We can have a nice building, we can have new hymnals, a new sound system, we can put commercials on TV, we can have a successful youth group, a successful GNC, we can have these great things but if we do not have love for each other, we have nothing!
As ST. Peter said, "And above all things have fervent love for one another, for "love will cover a multitude of sins."
Not just a love but a fervent love, a love that covers a multitude of sin. That is part of what a healthy church is all about.
Now aren’t those four things what every true Christian wants. To abide in Christ and have Christ abide in us. To have God answer our prayers, to be able to approach the throne of God joyfully and confidently. To be a part of a healthy thriving church.
Those blessing can be ours. They can be ours when we follow the example of Christ and love in both deed and words. When we place others first. When we are willing to both live and die for others.
My prayer this morning is that you will take these things to hearts. That you will begin to work on those relationships which you know need to be improved. Please for your sake, the sake of this church and the sake of Our God, do not ignore this sermon, as so many of us will.
Ask yourself "does the love of God abide in me?" And if it does am I letting it out.
LET US PRAY
